I’m trying to take a break from the negativity…let’s see how long that lasts…
1. The Habs started off ok.
At the beginning of the game, it was clear that the Habs came to play. They made a lot of mistakes, but the effort was there to fix them before disaster struck. To be honest, It’s not so much that they were good, it’s just that after last night, just about anything looked better. Unfortunately, it didn’t last, and by the end of the third, they looked pretty defeated. Though to be fair, I thought there was still more effort at the end than there was in last night’s game. Again though, not saying much. Side note, surely Plekanec will break his scoring slump soon…right? He had five shots on net in 15:53 of ice time.
3. More about the bottom six
After 14 NHL games, ranging from solid to excellent, McCarron got his first NHL goal. Planting his huge frame in front of Backstrom, he tipped Beaulieu’s shot into the net, preventing the Habs from being shut out by a 38-year-old goalie who hadn’t played a game in over a year.
Considering that this was only Dietz’s fourth, and Hanley’s first, NHL game, and that they played 14 minutes without being sheltered in cushy zone stars, or by the presence of a veteran partner, I’d say that it was an outing to be cautiously optimistic about – especially as the mistakes that led to a goal against for the pair had more to do with lack of experience than with lack of ability. Given how injured the Habs’ defence is, it’s possible that they might actually get some of that needed seasoning.
6. The zone exits were ATROCIOUS.
7. Don’t even get me started on those turnovers.
Don’t. Just don’t. It’s an absolute epidemic straight through the lineup.
8. Emelin is still looking better than he was.
9. Maybe some day the Habs will get through a game without three or four players sitting on the bench at various points in time, clutching various appendages and grimacing, but that night was not last night.
10. It was like looking in one of those very flattering mirrors that makes the reflection look much better than the original.
The Flames are also bad, in a lot of the same ways as the Habs. I’m pretty sure they iced the puck a handful of times more than the Habs did, their goaltending isn’t great, their systems aren’t great, they’ve got a lot of kids, they’ve ridden extremely far on luck in the last few years, and they’ve got some good pieces. It led to a pretty terrible game in which Monahan and Gaudreau outshone Pacioretty and Galchenyuk, and Hamilton outdid Beaulieu. It was brutal.
So much for trying to be positive.
